ATHLETICS HANDBOOK 2016-2017 Table of Contents 2 Athletic Director's Message 3 Durham Academy Athletics: A Tradition of Excellence 4 Durham Academy Athletics Philosophy 4 Middle School 5 Junior Varsity Varsity 6 Off-Season Workouts and Official Starting Dates 7 Athletics Staff and Coaches 9 Parent Athletic Council 10 Eligibility 10 Academic Eligibility NCISAA Eligibility 11 Selection of Teams; Expectations of Athletes 12 Parent-Coach Relationships Criteria for Earning a Varsity Letter College Visits and NCAA Information School Attendance and Athletic Participation Transportation and Overnight Trips 13 Uniforms Inclement Weather Policy Athletic Awards 14 Sportsmanship NCISAA Sportsmanship Code Ejection/Suspension Rule NCISAA 15 TISAC Athletic Training 16 Training Rules Policy Concerning the Violation of Training Rules Hazing Policy 17 Facilities 18 Publicity and Communication 18 Durham Academy Website 19 DA App 1 Athletic Director’s Message The purpose of this handbook is to communicate to parents and students important information about our interscholastic athletic program. I hope you will take the time to look through it to become familiar with what our program can offer Durham Academy students and with our policies and expectations. I believe you will find this information both useful and interesting. As you read this handbook, I would like to ask you to pay particular attention to the sections on sportsmanship, selection of teams, training rules and parent-coach relationships. DA coaches respect and encourage active and broad athletic participation by our students. We appreciate and respect the competitive element of high school athletics and are proud of our history of success at the conference and state level. Our program is intended to encourage and allow the broadest participation possible among our students at the high school level. The ideal model is to have as many two- and three-sport athletes as possible. This has been the tradition at Durham Academy, and in many ways has been the backbone of our success. It is also my hope that participation in the DA athletic program will expose students to a variety of experiences and challenges. Those challenges will include dealing with a range of emotions and situations. Participation in athletics can help students learn to work effectively with a group in pursuit of a common goal, and can help students learn to put team goals ahead of individual goals. Athletics can teach students to deal with the elation of success and the disappointment of failure — and how to benefit from both. Ideally, DA athletes will learn to be determined and learn how to face challenging situations in ways that are positive and in ways that will make them better athletes and better young men and women. I want each Durham Academy athlete to enjoy the many successes, challenges and opportunities that his or her participation will bring, and to take advantage of opportunities for improvement and growth. Steve Engebretsen Athletic Director 2 Durham Academy Athletics: A Tradition of Excellence Durham Academy has a proud tradition of success in athletics. Each year, 20 varsity teams compete for North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association (NCISAA) state championships. State championships in the last decade include girls track, boys cross country, girls lacrosse, field hockey and boys golf. Durham Academy has won more than 20 Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference (TISAC) championships in the last four years, and in the 2015-2016 school year, 18 athletes earned NCISAA All-State recognition and 51 athletes received TISAC All-Conference honors. Three DA athletes were named high school All-Americans in the 2015-2016 school year. DA annually finishes in the top 8 among 3A schools for the Wells Fargo Cup, an award presented each year for the top overall athletic program in the NCISAA, based on conference championships and NCISAA tournament bids and wins. More than a dozen Durham Academy alumni are currently playing competitive college athletics at the NCAA Division I, II or III level in men’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse, swimming, tennis, golf, baseball, men’s and women’s cross country and track. The opportunity for athletes to continue competing beyond high school is enhanced by the quality competition in the TISAC and the NCISAA, and by the high academic standards that our students must reach. Durham Academy students are considered hard workers, well-coached and highly motivated by college coaches. 3 Durham Academy Athletics Philosophy Durham Academy is committed to providing an education that includes varied opportunities for personal development. The school’s athletics program makes an important contribution to this goal. A strong athletics program serves to emphasize that a fulfilled life will include complements to intellectual endeavors, including the satisfaction of physical attainment, the increased self-confidence that accompanies development of skills and the pleasure of camaraderie with one’s peers. Among Durham Academy’s goals for students through participation in athletics are the following: • To learn the value of and develop the habits of hard work, determination and self-discipline. • To learn the importance of working cooperatively toward team goals. • To learn to respond appropriately to victory and defeat. • To learn to compete with grace and good sportsmanship. • To develop athletic skills. Durham Academy is committed to the following principles: • Providing a varied program of interscholastic sports. • Encouraging the broad participation of its students and the active involvement of its faculty in the athletic program. • Maintaining competitive varsity programs within the conference and state organizations. Durham Academy is committed to developing an athletic participation philosophy that is inclusive, yet preserves the integrity of interscholastic team sports and competition. Middle School Interscholastic athletics at Durham Academy begin in seventh grade. Our Middle School programs are feeder and developmental programs for our future high school teams. We hope to identify athletic ability and develop physical and mental skills needed to be successful high school athletes. Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, Durham Academy instituted roster limitations for some Middle School/junior varsity teams when needed. The manageability of team sizes, our facilities and the potential for scheduling will be determining factors when these roster limitations are needed. We do anticipate try-out situations to limit roster sizes for some teams in the coming year, and those processes will be communicated at the beginning of each MS/JV season as numbers determine. We will attempt to continue to provide the wide variety of opportunities that now exist, and will add teams to our program when it seems appropriate and feasible. Providing a quality and appropriate athletic experience will always be the guiding factor in decisions to create opportunities for Middle School students. Middle School students are at different stages of physical development, exhibiting a variety of skill levels, and at different stages of social and emotional maturity. We want to be sure to place students on teams that are appropriate for their skill level, but perhaps more importantly, on teams that are appropriate for their social and emotional level, with the following priorities in mind: 4 • Seventh-grade students may play on a JV team only when no MS team exists for that sport (i.e. baseball, softball, tennis, girls lacrosse, cross country and track). • Seventh-grade students may play on a varsity team only when no JV or MS team exists for that sport (i.e. golf and swimming). • Eighth-grade students may play on a JV team when: 1) no MS team exists for that sport, 2) a MS team does exist, but eighth-grade students are needed to bring that JV team to an appropriate number or 3) they are deemed by the coach and athletic director to be an exceptional athlete, making it clear that JV placement is appropriate. • Eighth-grade students may play on a varsity team when: 1) no MS or JV team exists in that sport or 2) they are deemed by the coach and athletic director to be an exceptional athlete, making it clear that varsity placement is appropriate. These cases will be the exception rather than the rule. Students in grades 9 to 12 will not be cut to make room for eighth-grade students, but there may be instances when students in grades nine through 12 are cut from a team and eighth-grade students are added to the team. Individual athletic ability and potential, emotional maturity and the benefit to the athletic program all will be considered in cases when an eighth-grade student is moved up to a JV or varsity team. Durham Academy believes that in most cases it is in the best interest of seventh- and eighth-grade students to play on a team with students nearest their own age. Junior Varsity The junior varsity teams should be considered a transitional level between the Middle School teams and the varsity teams. In some sports (tennis, girls lacrosse, softball, baseball), these teams will comprise Middle School students and ninth-graders. In other sports (soccer, basketball, field hockey, volleyball), these teams are composed primarily of freshmen and sophomores. One goal of the junior varsity teams is to prepare athletes for the varsity level. In most cases, these teams will have more games and will play at a more competitive level than Middle School teams. It is important for parents and athletes to realize that in certain sports, depending on the number of interested students, there may be roster limitations for junior varsity teams. The try-outs and practices for these teams will be competitive situations, in which our students are competing with each other for roster spots and playing time. We do not have an equal playing time policy, and playing time decisions are left to the coaches.